Poll: How many generations removed from immigration are you?

While I don't live in the US, I am an immigrant to the United Kingdom (an EU citizen, so not even a real immigrant since I took the shortcuts and my home country is two hours away from Heathrow Airport)

Of course I have multiple ancestral lines. (And my wife is a first-generation immigrant, born overseas, so my children choose the "1 generation" answer, even though I chose the "3 generations" answer.) Some of my ancestors arrived in the United States during the 1600s, and most were living in my current state of residence well before it became a state. But others arrived more recently. Not quite half of my ancestors came from the two European countries that lost the biggest percentages of their populations to emigration--Ireland and Norway--because they were dirt poor. But just more than half my ancestors were fairly well off in Europe, and came to America, in some cases as part of organized groups that formed "colonies" here in the 1800s, because they desired more freedom than their home countries provided, even though they were prospering in those home countries.

My wife grew up in another country, and one of my children was born there during a subsequent period of residence there (but has only a claim to United States citizenship by facts of birth), so I am familiar with current immigrant communities. The United States still provides a lot of opportunities that are less abundant in other countries. And immigrants by virtue of having lived in two cultures usually arrive in the United States full of fresh ideas that result in their having a more creative approach to living here when they get here.

Happiness doesn't correlate with material wealth.

We often forget how much we have, how safe our lives are and how little we have to fear. When you hear stories like these, and there are many if you ask old folks that have been through wars famines and worse, you realise that happiness and living a full life is a mental exercise that is not dependant upon material wealth. That's why I wrote the post - I think it's worth saying.

My grandmother was as happy an caring as one could possibly be, and it seems that your experience is the same. And they went through stuff we couldn't even dream of.

13. My 10(great) grandfather was John Alden and came over on the Mayflower. I think I did the math right...

I'm not really sure how to answer that. I am an American, and live in Italy, so I suppose that makes me an immigrant. We may go back to the US at some point, but my daughter is Italian/American, so I guess I'll check the first one: either I or my wife will always be an immigrant (or maybe both, like when we were in Austria).

In terms of the US, some of the people on my mother's side were involved in founding Providence, RI, where Roger Williams went after being kicked out of MA. On my father's side, they were Danish immigrants at the end of the 19th century, or at least the ones we know something about.